On the outside, kids who are star athletes, musicians and students might seem the enviable epitome of success.

On the inside, many are fragile and overwhelmed. They might be too stressed and insecure to realize they have value beyond their latest win or perfect score, says Dr. Sarah Feuerbacher, clinic director of the Family Counseling Center at Southern Methodist University.

As a therapist and a parent, Feuerbacher says she wants something different for her kids and the ones she treats.

That’s why she has signed on to be one of the five panelists on the free Dallas Morning News 360 Series “Competition at a Young Age: Are Our Children Under Too Much Pressure?” seminar Aug. 8 at Las Colinas Country Club.

“I can’t wait,” Feuerbacher says. “This is such an important topic.”

Feuerbacher says she identifies with the pressures her patients confide in her. Growing up as a driven athlete with her teen years consumed by practice after practice, she remembers feeling her world fall apart when her error — an overthrow to third base — cost her high school’s softball team the state championship.

She’s thankful to her mother for telling her, as she cried on the way home, “Sarah, maybe you needed to be in this position because you were the one strong enough to be able to handle it.” . . .

The other panelists who will share professional and personal experiences are Kathleen Fischer, author of Simple but NOT Easy: Regaining Balance in Our Family Life; Dr. Thomas Sanders, master of arts program director in Christian education at Dallas Baptist University; Beth Van Duyne, mayor of Irving; and Dr. Dana T. Bedden, Irving ISD superintendent.